Background Studies documented the important role of health-care professionals in encouraging their patients to adopt and use mobile health applications. Health-care professionals who use and believe in mobile health applications are more likely to encourage and empower their patients to use it. Likewise, students in health-profession related specialties who use mobile health applications are more likely to continue to do so when they join the workforce. Objective The objective of this study was to examine the rate of adoption of mobile health applications in students in health colleges, identify the types of health applications used by health students, and identify the barriers that prevent the use of mobile health applications. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among university students. Students were invited to participate in a self-administrated survey from five health colleges. The survey included questions about the pattern of utilization, the purpose of the health-related application being used, and the barriers to adoption. The analysis included descriptive statistics using SPSS. Results A total of 383 students participated in this study. The within gender comparison showed that more female students were using health-related applications 59.8% compared to male students 49%. The most frequent purpose of using mobile health applications were tracking physical activities 72.5% followed by counting calories intake 44%. We also identified the frequency and duration of use as well as the factors which may impact students intention to use. Conclusion Fitness and dietary related applications were more common which might be explained by the fact that we only included a younger age group. The reported levels of perceived usefulness, accessibility and ease of use suggest that students will continue to use it.
The aim of this study was to describe an integrated informatics approach to aggregating and displaying clinically relevant data that can identify problems with medication adherence and facilitate patient-provider communication about strategies to improve medication use. We developed a clinical dashboard within an electronic health record (EHR) system that uses data from three sources: the medical record, pharmacy claims, and a personal health record. The data are integrated to inform clinician-patient discussions about medication adherence. Whereas prior research on assessing patterns of medication adherence focused on a single approach using the EHR, pharmacy data, or patient-entered data, we present an approach that integrates multiple electronic data sources increasingly found in practice. Medication adherence is a complex challenge that requires patient and provider team input, necessitating an integrated approach using advanced EHR, clinical decision support, and patient-controlled technologies. Future research should focus on integrated strategies to provide patients and providers with the right combination of informatics tools to help them adequately address the challenge of adherence to complex medication therapies.
Our objective is to investigate patient needs and understand information gaps in radiology reports using patient questions that were posted on online discussion forums. We leveraged online question and answer platforms to collect questions posted by patients to understand current gaps and patient needs. We retrieved six hundred fifty-nine (659) questions using the following sites: Yahoo Answers, Reddit.com, Quora, and Wiki Answers. The questions retrieved were analyzed and the major themes and topics were identified. The questions retrieved were classified into eight major themes. The themes were related to the following topics: radiology report, safety, price, preparation, procedure, meaning, medical staff, and patient portal. Among the 659 questions, 35.50% were concerned with the radiology report. The most common question topics in the radiology report focused on patient understanding of the radiology report (62 of 234 [26.49%]), image visualization (53 of 234 [22.64%]), and report representation (46 of 234 [19.65%]). We also found that most patients were concerned about understanding the MRI report (32%; n = 143) compared with the other imaging modalities (n = 434). Using online discussion forums, we discussed major unmet patient needs and information gaps in radiology reports. These issues could be improved to enhance radiology design in the future.
Background Despite the many benefits of electronic health records (EHRs), studies have reported that EHR implementation could create unintended changes in the workflow if not studied and designed properly. These changes may impact the time patients spend on the various steps of their visits, such as the time spent in the waiting area and the time spent with a physician. The amount of time patients spend in the waiting area before consultation is often a strong predictor of patient satisfaction, willingness to come back for a return visit, and overall experience. The majority of prior studies that examined the impact of EHR systems on time focused on single aspects of patient visits or user (physicians or nurses) activities. The impact of EHR use on patients’ time spent during the different aspects of the visit is rarely investigated. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the impact of EHR systems on the amount of time spent by patients on different tasks during their visit to primary health care (PHC) centers. Methods A time and motion observational study was conducted at 4 PHC centers. The PHC centers were selected using stratified randomized sampling. Of the 4 PHC centers, 2 used an EHR system and 2 used a paper-based system. Each group had 1 center in a metropolitan area and another in a rural area. In addition, a longitudinal observation was conducted at one of the PHC centers after 1 year and again after 2 years of implementation. The analysis included descriptive statistics and group comparisons. Results The results showed no significant difference in the amount of time spent by patients in the reception area (P=.26), in the waiting area (P=.57), consultation time (P=.08), and at the pharmacy (P=.28) between the EHR and paper based groups. However, there was a significant difference (P<.001) in the amount of time spent on all tasks between the PHC centers located in metropolitan and rural areas. The longitudinal observation also showed reduction in the registration time (from 5.5 [SD 3.5] min to 0.9 [SD 0.5] min), which could be attributed to the introduction of a Web-based booking system. Conclusions The variation in the time patients spend at PHC centers is more likely to be attributed to the facility location than EHR use. The changes in the introduction of new tools and functions, however, such as the Web-based booking system, can impact the duration of patients’ visits.
BackgroundCancer registries systematically collect cancer-related data to support cancer surveillance activities. However, cancer data are often unavailable for months to years after diagnosis, limiting its utility.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to identify the barriers to rapid cancer reporting and identify ways to shorten the turnaround time.MethodsCertified cancer registrars reporting to the Indiana State Department of Health cancer registry participated in a semistructured interview. Registrars were asked to describe the reporting process, estimate the duration of each step, and identify any barriers that may impact the reporting speed. Qualitative data analysis was performed with the intent of generating recommendations for workflow redesign. The existing and redesigned workflows were simulated for comparison.ResultsBarriers to rapid reporting included access to medical records from multiple facilities and the waiting period from diagnosis to treatment. The redesigned workflow focused on facilitating data sharing between registrars and applying a more efficient queuing technique while registrars await the delivery of treatment. The simulation results demonstrated that our recommendations to reduce the waiting period and share information could potentially improve the average reporting speed by 87 days.ConclusionsKnowing the time elapsing at each step within the reporting process helps in prioritizing the needs and estimating the impact of future interventions. Where some previous studies focused on automating some of the cancer reporting activities, we anticipate much shorter reporting by leveraging health information technologies to target this waiting period.
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